Stimulating Brains

In this episode of Stimulating Brains, I’m honored to speak with Mary Elizabeth Sutherland, a Deputy Editor at Nature whose areas of responsibility include cognitive neuroscience and a broad range of the behavioural and social sciences. If you work with clinical or human neuroscientific data in the field of brain stimulation and choose to submit to Nature, chances are high that Mary Elizabeth will handle your work.

Before moving into scientific publishing, she studied at Cornell, completed her PhD at McGill, and did postdoctoral work in Santiago, Chile. Her own research background includes auditory cognitive neuroscience and music cognition. I’m especially looking forward to talking with her about what the job of a Nature editor actually looks like, how editorial decisions are made in a journal with limited space and broad ambition, how human studies are evaluated in that setting, and where scientific publishing may be heading next.

The conversation moves through career paths into editorial work, the day-to-day work of a Nature editor, how scientists become professional editors, and the bar for publishing in Nature, with an emphasis on the choices, constraints, and judgments that shape Mary Elizabeth Sutherland's work.

In this episode of Stimulating Brains, we are honored to sit down with György Buzsáki, Professor of Neuroscience at New York University and one of the most influential thinkers in modern neuroscience.
Dr. Buzsaki trained as a physician in Hungary, completed his PhD in neuroscience at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and went on to postdoctoral training in North America before building a decades-long academic career spanning UC San Diego, Rutgers University, and now NYU.
In this conversation, we explore the ideas behind his work on hippocampal oscillations, sharp-wave ripples, and the organization of neural activity across states such as sleep and wakefulness. Dr. Buzsáki reflects on how his early life experiences, technological innovation, and persistent questioning of dominant frameworks shaped a scientific philosophy centered on internal dynamics rather than task-based explanations.
Tune in for a rare opportunity to hear one of neuroscience’s most original voices reflect on the past, present, and future of understanding the brain.

In today’s episode of Stimulating Brains, we have the pleasure of speaking with Frans Gielen — a physicist and biomedical engineer who played a foundational role in shaping modern deep brain stimulation. Over more than three decades at Medtronic, Frans worked at the intersection of engineering, neurology, and surgery during the formative years of DBS, when stereotactic imaging protocols, targeting strategies, and surgical workflows were still being defined in real time.
He supported and trained teams in more than 2,000 DBS implantations worldwide, helping refine operative techniques and imaging standards long before they became routine. Beyond the operating room, Frans designed and managed several of the pivotal clinical trials that ultimately led to CE marks in Europe and FDA approvals in the United States — including landmark studies in VIM DBS for tremor, STN and GPi DBS for Parkinson’s disease, the first controlled trial of DBS for obsessive–compulsive disorder, and later the MORE trial in epilepsy.
In this conversation, we explore the practical, technical, and regulatory work required to transform DBS from a promising idea into a reliable, evidence-based therapy — and reflect on what it took to build the foundations that the field stands on today.

In this episode of Stimulating Brains, we sit down with Dr. Ludwig Zrinzo, Professor of Functional Neurosurgery at University College London and Head of the Functional Neurosurgery Unit at Queen Square.
Drawing on decades of experience at the forefront of deep brain stimulation, Dr. Zrinzo reflects on the evolution of DBS from awake procedures to image-guided surgery under general anesthesia, emphasizing why precision, verification, and closing the loop are essential for improving patient outcomes.
We discuss how his experience shaped a rigorous, data-driven approach to targeting, why imaging quality remains a very critical factor in DBS accuracy, and how systematic post-operative verification transformed clinical practice. Beyond technique, Dr. Zrinzo shares deeply insightful perspectives on patient selection, mentorship, leadership, and the responsibility of building sustainable teams in academic neurosurgery.
The conversation also ventures into neuropsychiatric DBS, including OCD, where we examine how stimulation in different targets may have differential effects on behavior, illuminating the brain’s underlying circuitry. Finally, we look into the future of adaptive and closed-loop stimulation, emerging electrode technologies, and the future balance between innovation, scalability, and patient-centered care.
Tune in for a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation on precision, evidence, and humanity in brain stimulation — and on how functional neurosurgery continues to teach us how the brain truly works.

In this episode of Stimulating Brains, we sit down with Dr. Eyal Zadicario, Chief Operating Officer at Insightec, to explore the remarkable evolution of focused ultrasound – from its experimental origins to its transformative role in functional neurosurgery today.
Dr. Zadicario shares insights from over two decades at the forefront of innovation, reflecting on the challenges of translating breakthroughs from academia to industry, designing clinician-friendly systems that prioritize the patient experience, and overcoming skepticism toward disruptive technologies.
Together, we revisit key milestones – from the first MRgFUS based thalamotomy in 2008 and early applications in breast cancer, to the expanding frontiers of neuromodulation. Looking ahead, we discuss the exciting possibilities of blood brain barrier opening, the acoustic neurosurgical suite, and even brain mapping through focused sound.
Tune in for a fascinating conversation on how precision acoustics are reshaping the landscape of brain therapy and beyond.